Ge Gan-ru has always sought to bind the sounds and character of his native Chinese music to Western techniques, and his solo piano music provides some of the best examples. Based on folk songs – either transcribed or presented in fragments—Twelve Preludes for Piano is a major early work heard here in its revised version. In Ancient Music he employs the prepared piano to evoke the intimate sounds of Chinese instruments such as the qin (a horizontal lute) to create a unique acoustic effect, a quality that also permeates Wrong, Wrong, Wrong! and Hard, Hard, Hard! written for toy piano.
